Can you imagine the poutrage that would pour out of Fox News if a CNN guest wore a shirt mocking conservative gun enthusiasts in the wake of the Sutherland Springs, Texas mass shooting at a Baptist church?
That was the question on NewsHounds’ Richard’s mind when he caught this screengrab during an interview with a friend of the man who shot the murderer of 26 worshippers at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas yesterday.
What would FOX News say if a guest on CNN or MSNBC showed up in a shirt mocking conservatives after a terror attack? #Texas pic.twitter.com/GNlECCEdy1
— Richard W. (@IceManNYR) November 7, 2017
But interviewer Laura Ingraham didn’t utter a peep of objection.
Don’t believe me? Watch it below, from the November 6, 2017 The Ingraham Angle.
CORRECTION: Fox guest Mike Jordan did not kill the mass shooter, as I originally wrote.
David Ames, yes the spelling of “poutrage” was intentional. I’d like to take credit for it but that would be a lie.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Poutrage
I agreed with him when he said that the USA has “a lot of people with mental health problems, as do other countries …” but got really angry when he failed to admit that it is far too easy for such people to get their hands on firearms in the USA. Other countries do everything and anything needed to keep weapons OUT of their hands. It’s only common sense to realise that a person with a grudge and no gun cannot wreak as much havoc than one with a semi-automatic originally developed for mass assassination purposes. Why such arms should be readily available is beyond me: are these so-called “hunters” taking home ground meat instead of sides of deer?
It’s true that people with a grudge and violent tendencies exist every where but it boggles my mind everytime I recall that those living in the USA can get their hands on such powerful weapons.
First, the indications are that the man who shot Devin Kelley did not kill him, nor did he deter Kelley from his slaughter of the people in the church. Instead, the man ran up to Kelley as he was exiting the church and exchanged shots with him. Had he done this inside the church, it is unfortunately likely that he would have caused injury or worse to the parishoners. Following the exchange, Kelley then jumped in his vehicle and two men chased him on the road in a dangerous high-speed pursuit, during which Kelley crashed into a ditch, thankfully without wiping out any other cars or pedestrians in the process that we know of. Kelley then had enough time in the wreckage of his car to contact his father and say he didn’t think he’d make it before using one of his own guns to commit suicide.
Fox News’ celebration of the man who shot at Kelley is understandable – it fits their narrative about a “good guy with a gun” versus a “bad guy with a gun”. But it’s easy to see the fallacy of that nonsensical argument. The reality is that the guys who engaged Kelley and then chased him across town did so for understandable and even admirable reasons. But their irresponsible behavior could have caused even further death and destruction – and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them looked at for charges of their own. If I jumped in my car and chased a shooter or robber in a 95 mph chase on public roads, I’d be looked at for charges too.
Next, Fox News and the Right Wing have absolutely no moral standing to say ANYTHING about when political statements can be made. These people have repeatedly cried crocodile tears whenever one of these now-regular massacres happen, and demanded that nobody dare speak about what allowed the massacres to happen. And at the same time, the second there is a massacre that they can pin on someone who is Muslim or who can be a good boogeyman for their listeners, the Right Wing immediately jumps on the opportunity. If they want to have any credibility, they can’t have this both ways. The reality is that the Right Wing loves to politicize a tragedy as a way of kicking entire ethnic groups in the face – whether those be Muslims or Chicanos or African Americans. If gun violence happens and the perp is not white, you can count on the Right to instantly attack. But if the perp IS white, you can count on the Right to instantly attack anyone who dare call out what happened.
I find it interesting that within ten minutes of this story being reported, Right Wingers were already trying to disclose the name of the shooter (a false name was thrown around for nearly a day before Kelley’s name was released) and were already declaring that the shooter was a member of Antifa and had been seen screaming Antifa slogans as he opened fire in the church – something that was blatantly false on its face. But the Right distinguished itself by jumping on the opportunity to attack, before anyone even knew who the shooter was.
The reality of this case is that it was about a hateful and violent young man who had little trouble obtaining high-end weaponry, which was done for openly nefarious purposes. This is a man who was violent toward his own family, and who was directing his current anger toward his in-laws. Those in-laws attended this church, something he clearly knew. They were his intended targets, but when he walked in and didn’t see them present, he decided to shoot up the place anyway. So much for the Right Wing’s desperate attempt to smear even Antifa with this violence.